Xu, Xiaodan, Zheng, Wei, and Wen, Jun. 2018. "The complete chloroplast genome of the long blooming and critically endangered Camellia azalea." Conservation Genetics Resources, 10, (1) 5–7. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12686-017-0749-6.
Camellia azalea, a rare and critically endangered plant endemic to South China, can bloom throughout the year and is thus of great interest for camellia breeders. In this study, the complete chloroplast (cp) genome of C. azalea was assembled based on sequencies obtained with Illumina HiSEq. The cp genome of C. azalea was 157,039 bp in length and contained a pair of inverted repeat regions (IR, 25,992 bp) separated by the small single copy (SSC, 18,169 bp) and large single copy (LSC, 86,886 bp) regions. It encoded 135 genes including 87 protein-coding genes, 37 tRNA genes and eight ribosomal RNA genes. The overall AT content of C. azalea cp genome is 62.7%. The maximum likelihood phylogenetic analysis revealed that C. azalea was most closely related to the congeneric C. crapnelliana and C. oleifera. This result will be helpful for the taxonomy, conservation, and breeding programs of the genus Camellia.
